Creators: Peter David, writer; Ryan Sook and Wade Von Grawbadger, artists

Marvel, 32 pages, color, $2.99

So? A longstanding bit of advice to wannabe writers of comics (and other stuff) was that editors wanted the same but different. And that’s exactly what this comic feels like. The same in that many of the characters here were previously members of a group called X-Factor in a title that was written by the same Peter David. The book retains David’s knack for catchy and funny-but-still-serious dialogue. And the art by Ryan Sook is terrific. Originally the nom de guerre of the reunited original X-Men, X-Factor has gone from mutants-disguised-as-mutant-hunters to government-backed mutant strike force and now to a private investigations firm assembled from various X-characters in the wake of the great mutant depowerment of House of M. There’s probably not much here to interest readers who aren’t already fond of David’s writing or of the various he’s assembled here. But for those who do still dip into the always angst-ridden and ever-more-confusing world of the X-Men, it’s nice to have at least one part of that world that offers a little bit of humor and a different tone to the timeworn tale and concept. Grade: B

Jason Pearson’s comicbook “Body Bags: Father’s Day” has made its debut as a video comic available for free through Apple’s iTunes music store.

The comic is the first of many planned such video comics, which feature animation, voices work and sound effects, between publisher 12 Gauge and tech firm VideoTVisioN. Newsarama has all the details on the project. While the comic can be played on a video iPod, anyone can view the comic on a computer with the free iTunes software.

The website for Warner Bros.’ $60 million film adaptation of Frank Miller’s “300” has gone live, with a blog from director Zack Snyder and some great looking concept art for the pic, which uses the same sort of digital imagery as “Sin City” to mimic the look of Miller’s style. There’s also a “video diary” of the production that includes a look at what the final pic will look like and glimpses of stars Gerard Butler as King Leonidas and Lena Headey as Queen Gorgo.

“300” was Miller’s retelling of the historic battle between the ancient Spartans and the Persians in which 300 Spartans, led by Leonidas, showed the Persian army could be defeated, even at the cost of their own lives. Miller drew each issue of the 1998 Dark Horse comic series with double-page spreads. The book was collected into an oversize hardcover that presented each spread as a single page. The series has never been published in a softcover collection.

Marvel and News America Marketing have teamed up to republish classic “Amazing Spider-Man” stories for distribution in Sunday newspapers, starting in late summer.

The move evokes Will Eisner’s innovative creation, “The Spirit,” which was produced starting in 1940 as a comicbook supplement for newspapers worried they were losing readers to the new medium. Now that circulation is down for both comics and newspapers, they’re getting back together to represent “Amazing Spider-Man” from the start, with each original comicbook split in two and published 46 times a year.

News America Marketing’s network includes about 1,100 newspapers and the estimated circulation of the comicbook across metro markets will be 10 million, dwarfing the circulation of any single new comicbook being published today. The run back to newspapers also comes as the regular funny pages get a modern makeover with original manga offerings produced by TOKYOPOP.

Comic book characters aren’t the most jolly lot. They wear masks, beat people up in back alleys, plot to take over the world and have enough angst and insecurities to keep an entire legion of psychologists in business for a century. But Christmas has a way of bringing out the best even in superheroes. So here’s a few Christmas classics, comicbook style.

It takes guts to turn a sci-fi horror cliché into a classic Christmas tale, but that’s exactly what happened in The Uncanny X-Men #143 (March 1981). Notable for being the last issue from the Chris Claremont-John Byrne team, they bring the creation of Kitty Pryde full circle in a plot fully intended as a swipe from “Alien.” (As backstory, the original look Byrne gave Kitty was inspired by the idea of a teenage Signourney Weaver in the wake of the release of “Alien.”)

So trapped all alone in the X-Mansion on Christmas Eve, a neophyte Kitty runs from a nasty looking evil beastie and destroys most of the mansion in the process of killing it. Of course, Professor X is hardly pleased when he gets home, but that doesn’t get in the way of a Christmas celebration, mutant-style.

It may be a while before the popularity of the movie and the upcoming sequel produces the inevitable “Sin City Christmas Special.” But until then, we can enjoy Frank Miller’s comicbook version, “Sin City: Silent Night” (1994) a near-silent tale told solely in full-page panels in which Marv rescues a young girl from her vicious kidnappers. Like most of Miller’s work, there’s a heart of gold beating underneath the grisly exterior, just waiting for Marv to pull it out and serve it up with some plum pudding.

We all know Batman’s got family issues and thinks criminals are a cowardly and superstitious lot. But who knew he had a lovely singing voice? Writer Mike Friedrich and artists Neal Adams and Dick Giordano did, and they revealed it to the world in “The Silent Night of the Batman” from Batman #219 (Feb. 1970). While waiting for calls for help on Christmas Eve, Batman joins in with some police officer in singing carols, while readers see that for this one night, Gotham is infused with enough holiday spirit that crime and mayhem take a little break.

Eric Powell’s “The Goon” took a stab at the holiday tradition of doing yet another version of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” in The Goon #10 (Dec. 2004). Powell draws a lovely and hilarious version of the classic tale as if it were acted out by the likes of Franky (as the Ghost of Christmas Past), Peaches Valentine (as Tiny Tim, of course) and The Goon himself (as the Ghost of Christmas Present). The art is lovely enough to be on a nice set of Christmas cards and there’s the nice bonus of a prose tale written by Thomas Lennon, star of the Comedy Central series “Reno 911.”

Lastly, only Plastic Man could tell a tale titled “Merry Christmas, Justice League – Now Die!” from JLA #60 (Jan. 2002). In this tale from writer Mark Waid and artists Cliff Rathburn and Paul Neary, the Demon Neron takes on Santa, who calls in his JLA pals and … well, the cover with Neron about to beat the crap out of Santa just about says all that can be said about superheroes and Santa Claus.

Hope you all get some comics in your stocking Christmas morning. Merry Christmas.

The film's been pushed back to a 2007 release, but after much speculation fans can finally see what Nicolas Cage is going to look like in Marvel's "Ghost Rider" pic thanks to a very short teaser trailer. A few other notes on this pic: Director Mark Steven Johnson's last Marvel pic, "Daredevil," also opened on President's Day weekend and went on to gross a strong $102 million domestic despite a decidely mixed reaction from fans and critics. This time, Johnson is dealing with a character who looks great but has never had the sort of defining story that lifts Marvel's cop characters such as "Spider-Man" and "X-Men" to the head of the class. That gives him freedom to write a story that's not beholden to decades of continuity or even the Frank Miller admiration that infused "Daredevil."

One of the things that wannabe comics artists always have a hard time figuring out is just how much money you can (or can't) make doing comics or manga. The answers can be found with a little digging around, but it's usually a pretty closely guarded secret. But if you caught Marketplace Money last weekend on National Public Radio, you got an interesting tidbit on a segment called "Day in the Work Life" that profiled manga artist Felipe Smith, creator of MBQ for TOKYOPOP.

In the segment, Smith says he makes about $17,000 per book. Each volume is a couple hundred pages of story and art. One volume in the comedy series about a young comic book artists was published in July, with a second planned for April.

Given the interest the creative community has in TOKYOPOP and the contracts it offers creators, as exemplified by a much discussed and very long thread on Warren Ellis' The Engine forum a few months back, it's interesting to have a number of any kind to attach to the discussion. The key point of interest was in creator ownership, with those who've seen TOKYOPOP deals saying the publisher retains a percentage of the copyright that goes as high as 60%.

Based on the numbers Smith gave, the page rate for working at TOKYOPOP is very low compared to what Marvel or DC typically pay, so the ownership aspect and the royalty structure at TOKYOPOP would have to compensate in some way for it. A few creators with upcoming books at the publisher say that the ownership debate on The Engine was overblown and that they're very happy with their deals with the publisher.

Digital comics are on the mind of the comics biz after announcements from Marvel and Speakeasy.

Marvel announced it will offer current and classic storylines on its website, with the first few titles already up and running. These versions run pretty much the same as the dot-comics the company had been doing the past few years, but the emphasis on those seemed to fade away a bit until now.

Speakeasy has set new minimums for sales on its titles. Creators of books that fail to get minimum orders of 1,750 copies will have the option to cancel the remaining issues altogether or publish them online only. It's hard to say if that strategy would boost sales or discourage readers from trying Speakeasy titles — the argument has been made both ways.

Digital comics have started to make real creative strides. A category was added for webcomics in last year's Eisner Awards and there is some really terrific work being done out there. The question remains of how to make money from online comics. The late CrossGen had an elaborate online comics presence, but that failed to give the company enough of a boost to keep it from going under. There's no doubt that there's a place for comics in the emerging world of mobile entertainment in particular, which is growing by leaps and bounds. Whether anyone in the comics biz will be able to capitalize on that potential is one of the more pressing issues facing the biz.

This is doubly true for independent comics. The best-selling indie comics in the direct market struggle to crack the top 100 titles, which are dominated by the long-running superhero franchises of Marvel and DC. Claypool also has felt the squeeze imposed by Diamond's recent decision to raise its minimum orders for all comics. The outlook for indie publishers is that 2006 will be an especially tough and perhaps even decisive year in determining the future of comics. If digital comics catch on, they could provide the outlet and distribution system for those creative voices that the direct market's financial demands threaten to exclude. That would leave the direct market pretty much solely in the hands of the major publishers who already dominate it, which is good for DC and Marvel but not so good for anyone looking for the sorts of strange, unusual comics that push the envelope of the medium and force it to evolve.

The judges for the 2006 Will Eisner Comic Book Industry Awards have been announced by awards administrator Jackie Estrada. Here's what the announcement has to say about them:

Christopher Allen, managing editor for ComicBookGalaxy.com. He has written for The Comics Journal, MoviePoopShoot.com, NinthArt.com, and other websites. He is also into the fifth year of his “Breakdowns” column for ComicBookGalaxy.com.

John Gallagher, cartoonist, self-publisher, and award-winning designer. Under the Sky-Dog Press banner, John has written and illustrated his online and printed graphic novel series "Buzzboy" since 1998. John organized, edited, and published the "More Fund" (2003) and "Even More Fund" (2004) comics anthologies, which raised thousands of dollars to benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. He is a member of the SPX Steering Committee and sits on the Baltimore Comic-Con advisory board.

Nisha Gopalan, comics editor at Entertainment Weekly. As a staff editor at EW, she also works on the News and Notes and music sections. Prior to joining EW, Nisha was employed at Premiere magazine, where she was pretty much the only comics enthusiast in the office and used that distinction to interview any comics creator she could get on the phone.

Robert Randle, purchasing brand manager for Diamond Comic Distributors. He graduated from the Maryland Institute, College of Art in 2001 with a BFA in Illustration and has completed freelance art assignments for a variety of clients, including published works in the comic book industry. He has been a buyer for Diamond since 2002 and is responsible for the promotion and distribution of various large, mid-range, and small publishers, reviewing new submissions for acceptance into the Previews catalog, and writing reviews for comics in the Staff Picks section of Previews.

Robert Scott, owner/operator of Comickaze Comics Books and More in San Diego. An avid reader of comics in his early teens, Robert has continued his love of the medium as a fan, retailer, writer, and/or publisher (AFC Studio) for the last 25 years. He is also the founder of the CBIA (Comic Book Industry Alliance), an industry trade forum. Robert previously co-owned The Comic Alternative, also in San Diego, in the early 1980s and reentered comic retailing with Comickaze in 1992; the store was recently named San Diego's Best Comic Store for 2005 by City Beat.

Warner Bros. has picked up "Watchmen" from Paramount, where the project was in turnaround.

Pic based on the classic 1985-86 series by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons has been passed around Hollywood like a hot potato in recent years. Par had planned a summer shoot for the pic, which was to be directed by Paul Greengrass of "The Bourne Supremacy" until budget concerns prompted the studio to abort the project.

Before Par, the pic had been at Universal, where "X-Men" scribe David Hayter had written a script and was eyeing directing the picture. Hayter's script was a solid adaptation of the massive, sprawling story, but WB is looking for a new writer and director for the project.

Producers Larry Gordon and Lloyd Levin are still attached to the project. The pair has produced a number of good comics adaptations, including "The Rocketeer," "Mystery Men," "Hellboy" and the upcoming "Hellboy 2."